Jefferson Davis' Speech at Wilmington, N.C.

November 5, 1863

The President in reply returned his thanks to the people of
Wilmington and to Mr. [William A.] Wright as their organ, for the
cordial welcome they had given him. He was proud to be welcomed by such
an enthusiastic concourse of North Carolinians to the soil of the
ancient and honored town of Wilmington. He hoped that Wilmington,
although frequently menaced, might be forever free from the tread of an
invading foe. He knew well the importance of her harbor, now the only
one through which foreign trade was carried on, and he trusted that the
valor of her people, assisted by the means which the government would
send to her defence would be fully adequate for that purpose. He had
given for the defence of Wilmington one of the best soldiers in the
Confederate army--one whom he had seen tried in battle and who had risen
higher and higher as dangers accumulated around him. What other means
the government could command had been sent here, and in case of attack
such additions would be made to the garrison in men and arms as would,
he believed, enable Wilmington to repulse the foe, however he might
come, by land or by sea.

The President urged upon all their duty to do a full part in the
present great struggle, the issues of which were on the one hand
freedom, independence, prosperity--on the other hand, subjugation,
degredation and absolute ruin.--The man who could bear arms should do
so. The man who could not bear arms, but had wealth, should devote it
freely to the support of the soldiers and to taking care of their widows
and orphans. Those who for the necessities of civil of government, or
for the carrying on of industrial pursuits deemed essential to the
country, were exempt from the general service, were still bound to take
part in the local defence; even the old man who was unable to bear arms,
must, in the course of long years have acquired an influence, which
should be exerted to arouse those in his neighbourhood to fresh zeal and
renewed exertions in support of the cause in which all are so deeply
interested. If we were unanimous, if all did their duty manfully,
bravely disinterestedly, then our subjugation would be impossible; but
if, neglecting the interests of the country, and only anxious to heap up
sordid gain, each man attended only to his own private interests, then
would it be found that such gains were accumulated only to fall into the
hands of the plundering Yankees. The soldier who had fought bravely for
his country, although he could leave his children no other fortune,
would leave them rich in an inheritance of honor, while the wealth
gathered and heaped up in the spirit of Shylock, in the midst of a
bleeding country, would go down with a branding and a curse.

Since the President had last passed through Wilmington he had
travelled far and visited many portions of the country, and in some he
had found ruin and devastation marking the track of the vandal foe.
Blackened chimneys alone remained to mark the spot where happy homes
once stood, and smouldering ashes replaced the roofs that had sheltered
the widow and the orphan. Wherever the invader had passed the last spark
of Union feeling had been extinguished, and the people of the districts
which the Yankees had supposed subjugated were the warmest and most
devoted friends of the Confederacy.

He had visited the army of the West, had gone over the bloody battle
field of Chickamauga, and a survey of the ground had heightened his
admiration for that valor and devotion, which, with inferior numbers,
had overcome difficulties so formidable, and after two days' fighting
had achieved a glorious victory, the routed foe only finding shelter
under the cover of night.

He had visited Charleston, where the thunder of the enemy's guns is
heard day and night hurling their fiercest fire against Sumter, and
still the grand old fortress stands grim, dark and silent, bidding
defiance to the utmost efforts of the foe. He had visited the other
points about Charleston, and had found the spirit of the people and of
the troops alike resolute and determined. The Yankees were anxious to
crush what they called the nest of the rebellion. He believed that it
would stand, spite of their utmost efforts for its capture. It had his
best prayers for its safety. God bless the noble old city!

The President said that in North Carolina, as elsewhere, the contact
of the Yankees had thoroughly extinguished every spark of Union feeling
wherever they had come. The Eastern portion of the State which had
suffered most from the enemy was perhaps the most loyal and devoted
portion of the whole State; and North Carolina as a State had not been
behind any other in the number of troops she had given to the armies of
the Confederacy. In every field, from great Bethel, the first, to
Chickamauga, the last, the blood of North Carolinians had been shed and
their valor illustrated, and if she had fewer trumpeters than some
others to sound her fame, the list of killed and wounded from every
battle-field attested her devotion and bore witness to her sacrifices.
North Carolina might well be proud of her soldiers in the armies of the
Confederacy.

We are all engaged in the same cause. We must all make sacrifices. We
must use forbearance with each other.--We are all liable to err. Your
Generals may commit mistakes; your President may commit mistakes; you
yourselves may commit mistakes. This is human and for this proper
allowance must be made. We must cultivate harmony, unanimity, concert of
action. We must, said the President, beware of croakers--beware of the
man who would instil the poison of division and disaffection because
this section or that section had not got its full share of the spoils
and the plunder, the honors and the emoluments of office. Did we go into
this war for offices or for plunder?--did we expect to make money by
it? If so, then he and others, who, like him, had lost all--had seen the
product of years swept away, had been woefully mistaken. But we had not
gone into this war from any such ignoble motives, and no such narrow
considerations ought to control appointments. Merit and merit alone
should be the criterion. And merit hadbeen found, and North Carolinians
had received and now held a full proportion of the high positions in the
army. He here alluded to General Bragg, a native son of North Carolina.

If, there were those who yielded to despondency, who despaired of the
Republic, who were willing to submit to degredation, they were not to
be found in the ranks of the army, where all was confidence and
determination. Those who complained most, were those who had made the
fewest sacrifices, not the soldiers who had made the most.

In the changing fortunes of war, we may for a time be driven back,
but with a resolute purpose and united effort we would regain all that
we had lost, and accomplish all that we had proposed. Freed from the
shackless imposed upon us by our uncongenial association with a people
who had proved themselves to be ten times worse than even he had
supposed them to be, the Confederate States would spring forward in a
career of happiness and prosperity surpassing the dreams of the most
sanguine.

The President again returned thanks for his kind and enthusiastic reception, and withdrew.